Eternal Rebirth
by Chibi no Curse
Summary: Fate's really screwed things up now. A baby Naruto, a live Kushina and Yondaime Hokage, and an... altered Kyuubi. Altered? Well, you'll have to read to find out.


**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and all other copywright holders.**

**Warning: Spoilers. But most of it should already be public knowledge.**

The kyuubi let out a fearsome roar as he stormed towards the gates of Konohagakure, destroying everything that stood in his path.

The impossible darkness of the night was rudely shredded by the kyuubi's toxic chakra, illuminating the night.

Hundreds of shinobi milled about in panic below, futilely trying to slow the kyuubi's rampage to their home village until the yondaime arrived.

Fire, water, lighting, earth, and wind jutsus rained upon the demon, attempting to cause even a miniscule amount of damage, to wear him down. But despite the valiant efforts of the ninja, the demon merely brushed off the various elemental attacks, as if were mere annoyances that were undeserving of his attention.

Despite the efforts to hinder him, the massive creature simply burst through the curtain of elements, crushing and instantly killing the unlucky shinobi that his paws and tails found purchase on.

The ninja were haggard and low on chakra, but fought fiercely for their village. An explosion of smoke signified the arrival of a summon. The simple scene raised hope in the remaining members of Konoha's defense.

"The yondaime is here!"

A short statement, yet it held so much hope and meaning to those present. Gamabunta, the boss of the toad summons, hefted his sword and swung it in a downwards arc at the kyuubi. The kyuubi dodged it agilely and retaliated by slashing at the boss toads eye with one of his tails. As this battle continued, the yondaime finished the seal sequence and activated the seal.

"Shiki-Fuin!"

A large amount chakra pulsed outwards as the shingami, using the summoner as a medium, appeared to seal the kyuubi. The shingami pulled the demon's soul and entire chakra mass into a young infant whose stomach bore an intricate seal. Gamabunta disappeared, smoke signaling his dismissal, and the yondaime landed on earth below. He let out a breath and closed his eyes, awaiting for the greedy hold of death to claim him.

A few moments passed, the world watching with bated breath as the yondaime hokage fell... flat on his face.

"WTFBQQ?"

He leaped back on to his feet while letting out a string of curses and clutching his nose. Wasn't death supposed to be empty and relatively painless? Plus, the shingami should have taken his soul and he would have been in the shingami's stomach. The yondaime hokage was pretty sure that Konoha and its forests didn't exist in said stomach. You could bet that or his name wasn't Minato Namikaze! Maybe the shingami had messed up? Minato shrugged then headed out of the battlefield. Better make the best out of before someone notices, right?

Kami let loose an annoyed shriek.

"Fate, where the frick are you?"

Destiny, a young introverted girl, tapped Kami on the shoulder to get her attention. "Um... Fate's out sick, Kami-sama. Kami groaned.

"That baka screwed up the paperwork for Naruto Uzumaki's rebirth and reincarnations! Does he have any idea how much chaos this will cause?" Destiny's eyes widened. "He did _what_?_" _The normally shy and docile female slammed he fist into the desk.

"It's going to take me _months _to fix that mistake! Does that lazy good-for-nothing realize how much time my work consumes, not to mention me having to do his ridiculously sized workload too!"

She snarled and stormed out of the room. A few minutes later, desperate screams and pleas for help sounded from the other side of the door.

The door flew open and Destiny stomped in, dragging a beat, completely _healthy_ Fate behind her. That is, besides the recent bruises and injuries. Fate moaned in pain. Kami blinked at the odd looking scene. The docile Destiny had beaten Fate into a bloody pulp.

"Was that really necessary?"

Destiny merely sent a chilling glare her way. "Please remember why I was angry at him in the first place." Kami face suddenly looked foreboding. Fate gulped and inched away.

"Fate," Kami said in a sickly sweet voice, "How _nice _of you to drop in. Did you know that you botched Naruto Uzumaki's paperwork?" Fate swallowed and squeaked. "No?" Kami roared in anger. "You made a complete mess of the paperwork! Wanna know how? Huh? He's been reborn as the kyuubi no kitsune, who just happened to be attacking Konoha at the same time! And, funny thing is, he's been sealed into himself!" Fate laughed weakly.

"I WASN'T BEING SERIOUS!" Kami's enraged yell startled Fate. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST CAUSED?"

Fate slowly shrunk into a small ball, trying to hide from Kami's wrath. Kami took deep breaths to calm herself before she murdered Fate. She didn't want to invoke Destiny's wrath for knocking Fate's workload into her lap because Fate wasn't able to work.

"Since his soul has been sealed into himself, in a sense, the body has to have a different soul occupying the body because the original soul is unable to do so. Basically, a second soul has been created. Naruto has two identical souls, but the original contains the knowledge he gained over time and the new one doesn't. This means that I can't reincarnate him with his original soul because he will retain his memories from past lives. The only time I can allow his soul to be reborn in a new body is if there is an ulterior motive, like saving the world from falling into chaos. Unfortunately, you also messed up with those papers too. He's set on a specific sequence of rebirths and only Destiny can fix your mistake. Problem is, she's pissed off at you for having to do your work and fix your mistakes all the time. So, she's putting off your work until later. I can't convince her otherwise. She says that you should have to deal with it this time. Good luck with that."

Kami spun on her heel and strode away, leaving a dumbstruck Fate gaping in the corner. Fate sighed and prepared to slip away in hide in a hole somewhere. "Oh yeah, Fate?" Fate jumped ten feet in the air and released a muted scream. "Y-yes Kami-shishou?" A shit-eating grin spread across her face. "The shingami didn't take Minato Namikaze's soul and Kushina Uzumaki apparently survived the birthing. You've got a lot to do." Kami smiled happily and continued towards her office, ignoring the thuds from behind, where Fate was slamming his head on the wall, hoping he might hit his head hard enough and die. Unfortunately, fate was not smiling upon him. Which was pretty ironic...

Minato strolled outside happily, knowing that his wife and son were okay. Kushina made an amazing recovery within a few days, and little Naruto was going to enter the ninja academy in a few years. Konoha was also prosperous, despite the kyuubi attack. All was well.

Although... Minato frowned. Why had he survived the sealing? It wasn't that he wanted to be dead, but the shingami should have taken his soul in trade for sealing the kyuubi. Perhaps there had been a mistake in seal? That wouldn't be good. He didn't want the kyuubi rampaging again. As walked along, lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the person walking past.

Crash. Minato was yanked back into the living world. He then realized he had knocked over a young redheaded teen.

"Sorry, sorry!"He apologized profusely and held out a hand to help him up. A small whisper of thanks passed from the boy's lips as he looked up at his helper. Minato's breath caught slightly. Those eyes... he had seen them somewhere, during that night. But these eyes weren't filled with malicious intent like the other pair he had seen, but only surprise and curiosity. The boy's crimson eyes closed and curved as he smiled. Minato stared. That looked sort of like Kakashi's annoying eye smile. The teen, slightly unnerved by Minato's intense stare, backed away slightly and started to inch away. Minato snapped to attention and called after the boy.

"Wait!" The boy didn't even look back as he ran away. The yondaime twitched slightly and sighed. Minato guessed that had been staring at teen a little too closely. He must have seemed to be a creeper to the redhead. No wonder he ran.

Naruto ran for his life. That was the freaking forth hokage! He wasn't supposed to be alive! Naruto skidded to a stop once he had run an adequate distance from said hokage. He paused, hands on his knees, to catch his breath. What happened? He was going to die protecting Konoha, then Kami herself shows up and says something about second chances at life and amusement. Next thing he knows, he's sealed into a baby and wakes up in a sewer cage thing.

Naruto mentally slammed his head into a wall. When Kami said she was giving him a second chance, he didn't know that this was what she meant! He had deduced that he was, obviously, the kyuubi no kitsune himself.

At least he hadn't completely lost his entire appearance. He didn't think that he would have stayed sane had he looked like someone different. Or, even worse, changed gender. Especially knowing how most women were during the 'time of the month'. Naruto shuddered. He was definitely glad that something like that didn't happen. Anyway, the only things that really changed was his hair and eyes. Unlike his previous bright yellow shade, his hair was a dark crimson red. Naruto didn't particularly mind the color, mostly because his mother had red hear, although it was more of a bright fiery red. However, he was rather depressed that his eyes were also crimson instead of the stunning sapphire he had previously. But then again, red eyes looked bad-ass! He had always been jealous of how awesome the sharingan had looked. Eh.

Naruto's stomach grumbled. The now redheaded teen grinned and shouted, "To Ichiraku Ramen!" And he complied by sprinting to the much-awaited location, leaving a few civilians coughing in the dust.

"Oy! Oji-ji! One miso ramen!"

Ichiraku-san stared in shock at the owner of the boisterous voice. A customer already? Oh well, he _was_ a paying customer! He turned around and ladled some ramen out into a bowl, adding the toppings and ingredients. Naruto bounced eagerly, waiting for his ramen to be done. He hadn't had Ichiraku ramen in so long! The teen was so engrossed in watching his ramen as it arrived, he didn't notice a family of four seat themselves beside him. One of which, who was very familiar.

"Hiya Ichiraku-san!" Ichiraku smiled at the family. "The usual?" Minato grinned. "The usual. And Naruto-chan can try some too!" Naruto choked on his ramen. What the heck? He stole a glance at the people beside him and nearly spewed noodles across the table. A woman with red hair and blue eyes, a man with golden yellow hair and piercing blue eyes, and a child with bright yellow hair, blue eyes, and whisker-like marks sat near him. Kushina, Minato, and a miniaturized version of himself. His mind shorted out.

Kushina blinked. The redheaded kid sitting beside them had pretty much died. She watched in barely concealed amusement as a wailing, vaguely ghost-looking thing that seemingly floated out of the comatose teen's mouth.

_Whoa, is that his soul?_

Heh. The kid had just fallen off of the stool and... landed on his face. Kushina winced in sympathy. Ouch.

Little Naruto-chan was staring at the teen, a happy smile across his face. He hopped off of the stool he was sitting on and skittered over to the teen that was currently lying on the ground with his face in the dirt. He poked the redhead and giggled when a groan of pain emanated from the boy. Kushina laughed quietly at her son, who was having a fun-fest poking the downed teenager.

Minato looked up from his ramen and gazed at the kid who was face-down in the dirt and being poked by Naruto-chan. He blinked a few times, then went back to his ramen. Kushina scoffed slightly at her husband's inattentiveness. He didn't really seem to care that this random teen had just face-planted into the dust. Minato would remain oblivious about the kid until he finished his ramen.

Typical. But then again, she wasn't really much better.

She would have done the same a few years ago, but watching over a hyperactive Naruto-chan wasn't all that easy and it required a lot of attention. The last time she had diverted her attention from Naruto, he had wandered off and had somehow managed set Minato's hair on fire. She had walked in, seeing a screaming Minato running around, trying to douse the flames.

During all of that chaos, her son had been laughing gleefully, thinking that it was all a game.

A few minutes later, Minato was left with wet hair, soaked clothes, and was missing a few inches off of his hair tails and bangs. Therefore, Kushina had reasoned that Naruto-chan would most likely become a prankster. Maybe he would even become a better trickster than she had. As it was, Naru-chan had a lot of potential as both a shinobi and a prankster.

Anyway, back to reality... the redheaded kid was still flat on his face. Was he sleeping or something?

Naruto was annoyed. And why was he annoyed, you ask? Well, he was currently face-first in the dirt with a little kid poking him repeatedly. With a stick. Speaking of which, where did the stick come from? Hm... when a mommy stick and a daddy stick love each other very much... wait... where did that come from?

Naruto twitched.

He was already losing his sanity and he had only be fully aware of his situation for a few hours! Then again, he had been conscious for about five years, but didn't have access to the real world until now.

Unless you counted watching the world through his miniaturized self's eyes. It had been rather boring and uninteresting in there, especially since there was absolutely nothing to do. Not to mention that the scenery wasn't all that great.

Really, of all places possible, it had to be a sewer.

No wonder the fox had been so irritable all the time when he had been its container. Now that he thought about it, it kinda made sense why the kyuubi had wanted freedom so badly.

Then again, the fox had also wanted to raze everything to the ground and kill off anything in sight as revenge for being sealed. Bit of an obvious difference there, don't you think?

Naruto had considered ripping through the seal just to end the boredom, but that would have meant that he might kill his other self and risk having jutsus and sharp pointy things thrown at him as the shinobi of Konoha panicked.

So he had tossed that idea in the trash. But it made a very nice backup plan for retaining his sanity.

Nonetheless, he had just waited and had somehow created a solid form outside of the seal. Mostly because he hadn't actually been the kyuubi when he was sealed, he wasn't completely bound by the seal. Also, the kyuubi's original soul was actually taken by the shingami in return for being summoned, Minato had lived.

At least, that's the theory that he had formulated for why the yondaime had survived the sealing. But it was for best that he was alive, because Naruto had lived almost normal life, despite being the son of the famed Yellow Flash.

Naruto mentally facepalmed.

Gah, this was confusing referring to his other self as Naruto.

"Hey, kid. Kid?"

Naruto was jerked from his thoughts by voice and a hand shaking him.

"Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes, only to be greeted with a pair of blue eyes. "Ugh... yeah, I'm okay."

Kushina sighed in relief. "Good. Thought you were dead, cause you weren't moving at all."

Naruto chuckled nervously. "Sorry about that. How come you're not unnerved by my eyes?"

Kushina grinned cockily. "What kind of kunochi would I be if I was freaked out by red eyes? Plus, those Uchihas have red eyes, though it's only when their sharingan is activated. Also, those Hyuuga don't even have pupils. Your eyes really aren't all that weird compared to that."

Naruto widened his eyes. He hadn't thought of that.

"You have a point there."

**A/N: Well, this is the first chapter of Eternal Rebirth. I'm probably going to write this story for fun. No pairings. I'll have to figure out how to distinguish the 5-year old Naruto-chan from the original Naruto.**

**2/22/11: Funny thing... I found this old story from back when I used to read Naruto. Well, let's see if it's any good. I wonder if my writing was better then than it is now.**


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